Railways Articles

Most of the railway companies had their origins in the desire of country people to get access to London. By 1845, no fewer than 36 railway schemes were projected in Worcestershire, and 13 of them affected the City. Six only received legislative sanction.

The effect of the railways on road coaches in the Birmingham area fluctuated from boom to disaster. Until 1835, six coaches set out daily in each direction to and from Birmingham and Worcester, but when the London & Birmingham Railway opened, the traffic trebled because it was cheaper, quicker, and much more comfortable to get to London by coach to Birmingham

The directors of the West Midland Railway took a deep interest in the wefare of the workmen. A remarkable organisation, in the nature of a friendly society provided for sickness, fetes and excursions for families and friends. A Railway Institute was housed in the large rooms beneath the driveway to Shrub Hill Station, which later degenerated into storerooms.

 There used to be an orchard where Shrub Hill Station stands today and the Engine  Cleaning Sheds occupied the site of an old farm house close by. The Railway opened for traffic in 1852. The Company Directors travelled from Oxford to Wolverhampton and dined at an hotel there. 

The engineers of the Worcester and Hereford Railway originally planned a branch line that was to connect Diglis Docks to the main line at Foregate Street, called the 'Butts Spur Line'. The hope was that big ships would come  up the Severn to Diglis and there the goods would be transhipped to rail.  

For five years, until 1859, Worcester passengers had to use a horse bus to catch the train at Spetchley, 'a huddling of 15 persons in a lumbering conveyance for an hour's tedious jolting', and when at least the O.W & W was empowered by the Select Committee  to build a branch line to Abbots Wood, ( before other O.W. & W  lines were open)

The City Council and Chamber of Commerce called for a line from Abbots Wood to the vicinity of Castle Hill (near Edgar Tower)

The logical route from Birmingham to Bristol would have been through Worcester

 The Grand Connection Railway was originally to run from Gloucester west of the Severn

Gravitation Railways or 'Incline Planes'

The railway arrived late at the County town, but this was not due to the opposition or indifference of the citizens as happened at other places. From the earliest days of railways, the manufactures and the Corporation let it be known that they wanted Worcester